Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is a feature-length movie set in the Power Rangers universe. Directed by sci-fi veteran David Winning and Shuki Levy. It attempted to serve as a bridge between the television series Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo. The Story On the distant planet Liaria, a wizard named Lerigot is fleeing for his life from unseen enemy forces. In desperation, he uses a magical key in his possession to teleport away from them. In the city of Angel Grove, Power Rangers Tommy Oliver, Adam Park, and Rocky DeSantos are training for an upcoming martial arts charity tournament, but Rocky's lack of focus while training causes him to fail a jumping kick and land on his spine, critically injuring him. Elsewhere in the city, their fellow Rangers Katherine Hillard and Tanya Sloan are on a school bus helping the children of the Little Angel's Haven orphanage. Among the kids is a young boy named Justin Stewart, who is stuck in the orphanage due to his father always working and never being around. Kat tries to cheer him up, but Justin shrugs her off. Back on Liaria, the alien pirate Divatox admonishes her soldiers for failing to capture Lerigot and orders her subordinates Rygog and Elgar to find him immediately. They trace the wizard's path to Earth, and Divatox deduces that he is seeking refuge with Zordon. Their Subcraft immediately lifts off from Liaria and flies towards Earth. At the hospital, Justin comes in to visit Rocky but hides under his bed as the other Rangers come in to pay their sympathy to him. Their communicators suddenly go off as Zordon summons them to the Power Chamber, unaware that Justin has overheard them. Inside the Power Chamber, Zordon and Alpha 5 explain that Lerigot is being pursued by Divatox as part of her plan to awaken and marry the fire demon Maligore, who sleeps on the island of Muranthias. In his panic, Lerigot has landed in the African wilderness and is now at risk of dying from heatstroke. Tommy and Kat agree to locate the wizard and bring him to safety. As they arrive on Earth, Divatox has Elgar capture a pair of humans to be used as sacrifices for Maligore. Elgar brings her Bulk and Skull, security guards working under Jerome Stone who had gotten lost on their way to the International Dance-a-Thon when they were captured. Disgusted at his poor choice of sacrifices, Divatox orders Elgar to try again and throws the pair in the Subcraft's hold. After a long and dangerous search through Africa, Tommy and Kat find a passed-out Lerigot and revive him with supplies from their Power Boxes, then take him to the Power Chamber to recover. They are soon contacted by Divatox, who demands that Lerigot be surrendered to her immediately. To emphasize, she reveals that she has captured Lerigot's wife and child, Yara and Bethel, as well as former Power Rangers Jason Lee Scott and Kimberly Ann Hart (both captured by Elgar while they were scuba-diving), and that she will kill them all if the wizard does not surrender. On the beach, the Rangers are unable to stop Lerigot as he willingly surrenders to Divatox, and her forces throw back what appear to be Jason and Kimberly into the water as they take him away. The Rangers quickly discover them to be nothing but their empty scuba-suits. Back in the Subcraft, Jason and Kimberly are put in the hold next to Bulk and Skull as they await their fate as Maligore's sacrifices. Zordon explains that Lerigot's magical key is required to ensure safe passage through the Nemesis Triangle, which prevents all ships from reaching Muranthias. A vessel known as the Ghost Galleon can pass through the Triangle, but the Rangers' current powers will not suffice for this journey. Instead, Zordon creates a new form of power to protect them -- the Turbo Keys and Turbozords. Now the Turbo Rangers, Tommy, Kat, Tanya, and Adam quickly adjust to their new Turbozords, the Red Lightning, Wind Chaser, Dune Star, and Desert Thunder, though Rocky's Mountain Blaster must stay behind due to his injuries. The Rangers arrive at the rendezvous point where the Ghost Galleon awaits its passengers. Before the Rangers board, the Mountain Blaster arrives with its driver... Justin. He explains that he had followed the Rangers to the Power Chamber and was given Zordon's blessing to become the Blue Turbo Ranger. Now five-strong, the Rangers load the Turbozords onto the Galleon and begin their journey, Though the Rangers' Turbo Keys renders the Galleon invisible to Divatox's Subcraft, Divatox spots them through the periscope and deploys Putra Pods to climb aboard the Galleon and destroy them, though they are fought off. Down in the holds, Jason and Kimberly attempt to escape by pulling apart a bulkhead, a dangerous plan that very nearly drowns them. While Kimberly escapes with Bulk and Skull, Jason snags his shirt and is unable to follow before Divatox seals the bulkhead and leaves him trapped. After forcing Lerigot to have her Subcraft pass through the Nemesis Triangle, Divatox is shocked to see the Rangers still tailing her, and a call for advice from Rita Repulsa proves useless. The Subcraft fires torpedoes at the Galleon to destroy it, but the Rangers escape to their Turbozords and drive on the ocean surface to reach Muranthias. Upon making landfall, Divatox convinces the natives to lead her to Maligore's temple. Kimberly is also found by the natives and returned to Divatox, though Bulk and Skull are left to fend for themselves. Morphing with their Turbo Keys for the first time, the Turbo Rangers give chase to the temple, where Divatox is preparing to throw Jason and Kimberly to the Pit of Eternal Flame and awaken Maligore with a pre-nuptial snack. She sends her Piranhatrons to delay the Rangers as the sacrifices are made and Jason and Kimberly are reincarnated as Maligore's evil minions. The Rangers are barely able to keep their own friends from killing them, but Lerigot and Yara use their combined power to restore the pair to normal, allowing the Rangers to draw their Turbo Weapons and focus on the Pirahnatrons. Divatox throws Elgar to the Pit as a new sacrifice, awakening Maligore as he begins throwing the Rangers around effortlessly. When Maligore grows in size, the Rangers summon their Turbozords to unite into the Turbo Megazord. After a fierce fight, Maligore is destroyed by the Turbo Megazord, and Divatox flees for her life while swearing revenge on the Power Rangers. After recovering Bulk and Skull, the Rangers return to Angel Grove in time for the martial arts tournament. Tommy ultimately wins the tournament, winning a sizable charity donation to the Little Angel's Haven as well, and Justin's father arrives to meet his son in a happy reunion. Rangers Notes * Kat is the only Ranger to use her Zeo powers in the movie (though she used them briefly), and is the last appearance of a Zeo Ranger until Space's "Countdown to Destruction" with Trey appearing as the Gold Ranger and Tommy morphing into Zeo Ranger V in Wild Force's "Forever Red". * Due to a contract dispute, director David Winning only received co-credit with the producer, and no editing influence. [9] * Unlike the first movie, this movie takes place within the continuity of the television series. The first episode of Turbo takes place after the movie. Because of this, the design for the movie was closer to the television show. The Ranger suits were spandex rather than the armor-like suits of the first movie, and the Megazord was filmed with the series' suitmation style rather than computer animation. Also, certain sets and costumes from the movie, such as the Power Chamber set and the Alpha costume, were also used in the television series, albeit with no mention of the extensive makeover they received in the interim. * This film shows the first instance of blood in the entire TV series; when Katherine fell into the river, her leg was busted open, causing her to bleed. *Steve Cardenas (Rocky) was originally was supposed to play as the Blue Turbo Ranger, but he announced his departure to concentrate on his dojo, despite rumors he was injured after that while performing a stunt towards the end of Power Rangers: Zeo and as a result had to leave the show, requiring the exit of his character. So while shooting the movie, he had to pretend he was not hurt and when he flipped, he would show his pain. The rumor was written into the movie. * Tommy (Jason David Frank), Rocky (Steve Cardenas), Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch), and Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) are the only Rangers to appear in both this movie and the previous movie, although only Tommy and Adam are active Rangers in both. * Bulk and Skull are shown to have rejoined Lt. Stone and have taken jobs as stadium security guards, with no mention being made of the fate of their detective agency or Bulk and Skull's jobs in France. * This movie marks a significant redesign of the interior of the Power Chamber. The Mighty Morphin' suit and weapons gallery has been removed and replaced with five Ranger-colored tubes, the console has been replaced with a larger one with two smaller consoles on either side and the floor design has also been changed. * Alpha 5 has also been redesigned, however his new body would be more commonly associated with Alpha 6. *The original cut was over three hours long; it included a fight with a crocodile, a longer trek through the volcano, a mermaid, a bungee-jumping stunt for Adam, and more character development for Justin. Perhaps most controversially, Johnny Yong Bosch has claimed that there was an extended fight scene between the Zeo Rangers and Divatox's forces that resulted in the Zeo powers and zords being destroyed. None of the footage from this version has ever been released and it remains unknown if it ever will be. *The original shooting script included a new character Mandika the Mermaid, described as having alabaster skin, black/blue hair that trails over her bare chest and a strange voice. She would have assisted the Rangers on their journey and acted as a new friend/love interest to Adam. Originally, Mandika would have saved Kimberly after she ran out of air escaping Divatox's submarine and Mandika would have taken her to Muiranthias. However, all of Mandika's scenes were cut out of the film and the actress who plays her is unknown/uncredited. *David Yost (Billy) was seen on the set filming scenes for the movie and his character was supposed to help co-create the Turbo powers, using the Zeo crystal. However, when Yost left the "Power Rangers Zeo" TV series (which was filming the same time as the "Turbo" movie), the crew scrambled to re-write the script and they wrote Billy out. *Ironically Gekisou Sentai Carranger, the Japanese counterpart of Turbo, did not have its own theatrical movie (the two movies were team-ups and, thus, not Carranger specific). This is like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, where the three teams associated either didn't have their own movie (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger) or the elements in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie were not in the Super Sentai team's movie (Gosei Sentai Dairanger or Ninja Sentai Kakuranger). *Ernie makes his final onscreen appearance here, with his departure being established in "Shadow Rangers". *Jason and Kimberly appear next in archive footage from the movie in Part of "Shift Into Turbo". **After Turbo, Austin appeared as himself in "The Lost Episode", and later reprising his role as Jason in Wild Force's "Forever Red". **Kimberly is mentioned by Jason at the end of "Forever Red", and shown in clips in Dino Thunder's "Legacy of Power". * The original name of this movie was Turbo: A Power Rangers Adventure.http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/154795/Turbo-A-Power-Rangers-Adventure/overview Errors *The Power Chamber exterior in this movie is the same from the previous movie, but would revert back to its normal appearance for the series. *Rocky's kick should not have sent him flying out of the ring the way it did. *The scene with Bulk, Skull and Lt. Stone at the baseball game took place in the daytime, while all the surrounding scenes took place at night. *After Tommy and Kat come ashore, Kat is wearing her yellow life vest. In the next shot it has disappeared. *For some reason Divatox waited until after she thought Lerigot would have reached Zordon before removing the mind-block from Yara to allow her to lure him to them. *The Turbozords cockpits appeared to be too large to possibly fit inside the car-sized Zords. *Jason was able to get an accurate reading from his dive computer, despite not being submerged in water. *Jason noted that he and Kimberly should wait until the sub rose to 100 feet before loosening the hatch, but they began loosening it immediately. *Muranthias appeared just as close to the Ghost Galleon when the Rangers saw it from the ship as it had a few seconds earlier when Justin was using binoculars. *Adam pointed the Thunder Cannon the wrong way, but it still fired forwards towards Maligore. *Despite the fact that Tommy, Adam and Jason had been easily besting their opponents, everyone still seemed surprised that they won the karate tournament. *The giant novelty cheque was seemingly already made out to Little Angel's Haven before the declaration of the winners. *During the fight scene in the volcano, when Adam and Elgar are fighting briefly, it shows the latter with the more evil looking Zelmoda mask from Gekisou Sentai Carranger, rather than the more goofy American mask. It's not clear why this was done or if it was an error. VHS Release Before the film begins, the VHS release first featured the trailer for Anastasia and the sneak peek for Saban's film of Casper, the Friendly Ghost entitled, Casper: A Spirited Beginning Reception The film has been given mostly negative reviews from critics and moviegoers, with a 18% Rotten rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Kevin Thomas wrote a positive review in the The Los Angeles Times saying the filmmakers have brought much panache and sophistication to the making of this fantasy adventure extolling the good old-fashioned virtues of spirit and courage embodied by the Power Rangers and that "Turbo" is a solid follow-up. Other reviews were a mixture of positive and negative. But the majority of reviews were decidedly negative. As of 2013, the film has only an 18% "freshness" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, meaning only 18% of critics gave a positive review. LAWRENCE VAN GELDER, of The New York Times, gave the film a very bad review. "Five-year-olds who have read their Shakespeare will recognize that Turbo is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing."